288 , ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



name, which Forskal writes badinjan, is the same as 

 the Hindustani badanjan, which Piddington gives. A 

 sign of antiquity in Northern Africa is the existence of 

 a name, tabendjalts, among the Berbers or Kabyles of the 

 province of Algiers, 1 which differs considerably from 

 the Arab word. Modern travellers have found the 

 aubergine cultivated in the whole of the Nile Valley and 

 on the coast of Guinea. 2 It has been transported into 

 America. 



The cultivated form of Solanum melongena has not 

 hitherto been found wild, but most botanists are agreed 

 in regarding Solanum insanum, Roxburgh, and 8. 

 incanum, Linnaeus, as belonging to the same species. 

 Other synonyms are sometimes added, the result of a 

 study made by Nees von Esenbeck from numerous speci- 

 mens. 3 8. insanum appears to have been lately found 

 wild in the Madras presidency and at Tong-dong in 

 Burmah. The publication of the article on the Sola- 

 naceae in the Flora of British India will probably give 

 more precise information on this head. 



Red Pepper Capsicum. In the best botanical works 

 the genus Capsicum is encumbered with a number of 

 cultivated forms, which have never been found wild, and 

 which differ especially in their duration (which is often 

 variable), or in the form of the fruit, a character which 

 is of little value in plants cultivated for that special 

 organ. I shall speak of the two species most often culti- 

 vated, but I cannot refrain from stating my opinion that 

 no capsicum is indigenous to the old world. I believe 

 them to be all of American origin, though I cannot 

 absolutely prove it. These are my reasons. 



Fruits so conspicuous, so easily grown in gardens, 

 and so agreeable to the palate of the inhabitants of hot 

 countries, would have been very quickly diffused through- 

 out the old world, if they had existed in the south of 

 Asia,, as it has sometimes been supposed. They would 

 have had names in several ancient languages. Yet 



1 Diet. Fr.-Berbere, published by the French Government. 



2 Thonning, tinder the name 8. edule ; Hooker, Niger Flora, p. 473. 



3 Trans, of Linn. Soc., xvii. p. 48 j Baker, Fl. of Maurit., p. 215. 



